Pandoran War
The Pandoran War, also known as the War of Pandora and the RDA-Na'vi Conflict, was a large-scale confrontation between the humans of the Resources Development Administration (RDA) and the indigenous Na'vi clans from all across Pandora. Sporadic conflicts existed between the two sides as far back as 2134,The Wii/PSP game took place in 2134 culminating in a series of high-profile battles in the early 2150s. The war concluded in 2154 with the failed attack on the Tree of Souls, and the expulsion of most humans from Pandora. Prelude Sporadic conflicts between humanity and the Na'vi presumably began almost immediately after their arrival on Pandora. By 2134 the Anurai Clan had been all but slaughtered for their artefacts, which were valuable on Earth's black market. Numerous battles took place between the RDA and the Tipani Clan in 2152, resulting in the destruction of Willow Island and various other native sites. 2152 also saw the attack on the Old School House, a severe blow to native relations. Destruction of Hometree While the animosity between the RDA and the Na'vi people was established well before the events of the film, it was the RDA's eventual attack on the Omaticaya clan's Hometree which brought their relations to a flash point. Under the pretense of convincing the Omaticaya clan to move peacefully, allowing the humans to excavate the valuable unobtanium from beneath Hometree, the RDA used Jake Sully as an ambassador. In reality, however, Parker Selfridge, the head administrator of the operation and Colonel Quaritch had planned to provoke a response from the Omaticaya by destroying the Tree of Voices, one of their most sacred places, to justify the planned destruction of the Hometree. A detachment of Scorpion Gunships led by Quaritch (using the Dragon Assault Ship as his flagship) attacked and destroyed Hometree using a combination of CS gas, incendiary grenades, and Hellfire missiles which caused it to collapse, killing a large number of Na'vi, including the clan leader, Eytukan. Reemergence of Toruk Makto After the events at Hometree, Jake Sully, along with scientists Norm Spellman and Grace Augustine, were incarcerated at the RDA headquarters at Hell's Gate. They escaped when disillusioned pilot and Marine Trudy Chacon (along with Dr. Max Patel) organized an undercover escape using an unguarded Samson transport. During the escape, Dr. Augustine was shot and fatally wounded by Quaritch (she would later die while a revival was attempted by the Omaticaya, further fueling the animosity between the two factions). The crew were able to steal the avatar uplink from the Hallelujah Mountains and regroup with the Omaticaya. Using the uplink, Jake returned to his avatar and successfully completed tsaheylu with the infamous toruk (becoming the sixth Toruk Makto). Inspired by this feat, the Na'vi once again trusted Jake and followed him "to the four winds" to unite all the Na'vi tribes against the RDA. The RDA Response Aware of the Na'vi's rapid increase in numbers, Quaritch decided to execute a preemptive strike against the Na'vi holy site at the Tree of Souls to "blast a crater in their racial memory so deep that they won't come within a thousand klicks of this place (Hell's Gate) ever again." The RDA outfitted the Valkyrie shuttle with palettes full of high explosives and set out with every aircraft in their arsenal while Jake prayed to Eywa for a favorable outcome in the battle ahead. Assault on the Tree of Souls The First Wave The RDA proceeded completely unopposed through the Hallelujah Mountains and into Pandora's infamous Flux Vortex, mangling the RDA's electronic detection equipment. A contingent of AMP suits and standard infantry started noticing readings of movement up ahead, although the air force had yet to notice the enemy. As the shuttle approached the stone arches marking the entrance to the Tree of Souls, several hundred banshee mounted warriors descended onto the formation. Jake Sully accounted for the first RDA casualties when his Toruk grabbed onto a Scorpion gunship and sent it out of control into a nearby cliff face. At this point, the primary strategy of the Na'vi was to fire arrows directly into the cockpits of the enemy aircraft, making use of their banshees' speed and close range to overcome the reinforced glass. Meanwhile on the ground, a large group of Direhorse-mounted Na'vi approached the advancing infantry head on with less effect. Although the Na'vi had taken advantage of the element of surprise and managed to destroy several enemy units, Quaritch eventually ordered the RDA to break formation and the battle soon turned to favor the humans and their superior technology. Even though Trudy managed to cause some damage to the enemy in her own Samson (suitably decorated with Na'vi war paint), she was quickly shot down and killed by Quaritch's Dragon gunship. At this point, the Na'vi sustained heavy casualties, including Tsu'tey (who attempted a direct assault on the Valkyrie shuttle), Trudy (after fighting the Dragon Assault Ship) and Seze, Neytiri's banshee. The RDA soon regained control of the fight and were subsequently allowed to regroup and resume their bombing run of the Tree of Souls. The Second Wave As Jake slowly came to realize that his counterattack had failed and Neytiri prepared one final, suicidal attempt to attack the advancing enemy ground forces despite Jake's order to hold her fire, much of the native wildlife suddenly organized against the human invaders. Dozens of hammerhead titanotheres and sturmbeest charged at the advancing AMP suits, their natural frontal armor easily deflecting the large caliber rounds fired by the GAU-90. This stampede made short work of the advancing ground forces and quickly caused a retreat, which was pursued by packs of viperwolves. Meanwhile several thousand wild banshees descended on what was left of Quaritch's air force, easily destroying the remainder of the Scorpion gunships. Under the cover of this new assault, Jake single-handedly raided the Valkyrie shuttle, disabling one of its starboard engines by tossing a hand grenade into the intake. As he escaped on the back of his toruk, the shuttle lost control and careened into the nearby mountainside, losing its entire starboard side wing and crashing into the valley below, detonating the explosives carried on board well clear of the Tree of Souls. A similar tactic with the Dragon Assault Ship failed as Quaritch had seen him coming and took evasive action. The grenade that was meant for the engine intake detonated inside an air vent, breaching the hull and forcing the crew inside to don exopacks. Despite the effort to shake Jake off the ship, he managed to separate a hellfire missile from its coupling and send it into the front starboard lift-fan, causing the aircraft to lose control and explode in mid air. While this signaled the end of the battle and the RDA's attempt to destroy the Tree of Souls, Quaritch successfully managed to escape in one of the unused AMP suits, landing clear of the Dragon's burning wreckage shortly before it crashes. The Final Skirmish Jake managed to fall clear of the explosion and slowed his descent by using the oversized foliage found on the trees of Pandora. Quaritch, however, now marching through the woods in an AMP suit, managed to locate the avatar uplink capsule that Trudy and the scientists had previously stolen. Before he could destroy it, Neytiri attacked him from behind on the back of a thanator and managed to destroy his GAU-90 before Quaritch could dispatch the thanator with an AMP suit knife, leaving Neytiri pinned under it. Before he could return his attention to the uplink station, Jake cut him off and attacked, destroying both Quaritch's knife and breaching the glass canopy of the AMP suit. Quaritch was able to don an emergency exopack, and he then attacked the uplink station, breaching one of its reinforced glass windows and destroying an empty uplink. Jake attacked Quaritch again from behind, losing his own knife in the struggle. Jake was having difficulty maintaining his connection with his avatar, soon finding himself at the end of his own knife. Neytiri, who had just managed to free herself from beneath the deceased thanator, finally dispatched Colonel Quaritch with two arrows to his chest. Jake, unable to maintain his uplink to his avatar, awoke in the breached uplink station and unsuccessfully attempted to don an emergency exopack, losing consciousness a mere 100 yards away from Neytiri. Neytiri managed to piece together what was going on, and placed the exopack over Jake's face, allowing him to get enough oxygen to regain consciousness. Aftermath After the Pandoran war, the leadership of the Omaticaya was passed onto Jake by Tsu'tey, who was dying from the gunshot wounds he sustained in the battle. The Na'vi approached the Hell's Gate compound and forced the RDA personnel to leave Pandora for good. Some humans, presumably those who had aided the Na'vi in their struggle, were allowed to stay behind. This included Jake, Norm, Max, and some of the other science crew. Jake elected to undergo a Na'vi ritual to transfer his consciousness permanently into his avatar, thus becoming one of the Na'vi forever. It is unknown what happened to the rest of the humans who were allowed to stay, or if other members of the avatar team underwent the same ritual. In the years after the end of the Pandoran war, humans were eventually invited to return.http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/08/15/d23-2015-pandora-the-world-of-avatar-details-unveiled Alpha Centauri Expeditions began arranging civilian visits to Pandora. References Category:Events Category:Avatar Category:War